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Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin said a problem with the team’s radio was behind the failed double-stack pit stop at Sakhir.
With George Russell leading the Bahrain Outer Circuit while Valtteri Bottas narrowed the gap, it looked like Mercedes was on track for a double.
But when a Jack Aitken spin set off the safety car, Mercedes really threw the race away.
First to go in was Russell, who ended up being fitted with the front tires intended for Bottas, and with the crew at sea when Bottas entered, the Finn ended up being sent back on the same hard tires he was using.
The error eliminated Bottas from contention for the victory, while Russell had to stop again on the next lap to put on the correct tires.
And just as the Briton had returned to P2 and was rapidly closing in on race leader and eventual winner Sergio Perez, a puncture forced him into the pits once more.
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And Shovlin has revealed that a glitch in the team’s radio system – meaning the confusion was caused by some pit crew members who didn’t hear the call to prepare the tires – was behind the confusion.
“We haven’t had enough time to get a full and complete understanding of what happened, but we have found a smoking gun,” quotes Motorsport.com.
“That has to do with how the radio system prioritizes messages. When, for example, Ron [Meadows, sporting director] He’s calling the crews and having them ready the tires for the two drivers, there was a series of transmissions at that time on the radio system.
“The system knows how to prioritize the messages that come from Ron, because the most important thing is that the tires are there: more than what a driver or any other member of the crew says.
“But there seems to be a period when the system decides to pass up the prioritized message and we missed a key part of the transmission.
“[This meant] that half of the tire collectors did not get the message. And it seems that half of them did. So we have the cars coming in and all the tires are not ready in the pit lane.
“Obviously it seems kind of a mess if we don’t really understand what we’re doing, but the problem comes down to this kind of root cause where we lost a key message at a key point.
“There was very little time between the safety car and George’s arrival in the pits. We just need to go through all the logs of everything to see how it was working.
“And once we fully understand that, and fill in some of the blanks that we are not sure of at the moment, we can find a solution for the next race in Abu Dhabi.
“This is something that could have surprised us in any of the last three years. And it could have surprised us in the first race next year.
“So it is something that has been there in the system. And it was very unfortunate for the drivers and desperately unfortunate for George that we found that. “
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